ries essentially had not shipped to the U.S. market before 1993.The entire U.S. steel industry is attempting to overcome the second major shock of the 1990s the Asian financial crisis. The Asian financial crisis has meant collapsing currencies for many Asian countries, International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailouts for several of these countries, soaring domestic interest rates, bankruptcy filings, and significantly reduced home-market demand in Asian countries (Grow, 1998). This crisis has forced many Asian countries to resort to dumping steel on the U.S. market due to low demand at home.THE CAUSEFor years, the Asian model involved government-directed lending within a closed financial system to favored companies and industries in export-targeted sectors like steel despite the creditworthiness of the enterprises receiving the financing. Long-term capital expenditures were financed with short-term debt, and increased capacity was used to fuel higher exports and increases in the standards of living for workers. Workers in Korea were granted lifetime employment. Profits or the lack thereof, was not important; instead, market share and increased exports were emphasized. When the poster child of these Asian financial abuses, Hanbo Steel, filed for bankruptcy in Jan. 1997, the dominoes began to fall. Incredibly, at the time of the bankruptcy, Hanbo had received $5.8 billion in loans, led by the Korean-government-owned Korea Development Bank. Since the bankruptcy, Hanbo has been managed by Pohang Iron and Steel, now the world's largest steel producer and still 36-percent-owned and controlled by the Korean government (Grow, 1998).Because of the lack of demand for steel products in many Asian countries coupled with subsidized over capacity the U.S. has witnessed an inflow of steel products into the country. Korea has exported record numbers of steel pipe to the U.S. Also, increased exports of plate from Korea and Indonesia, and increased i...
